In-State College Son, Out-of-State Retirement Planning for Parents

[TiggerDad]

My son is currently a freshman at University of Colorado at Boulder. Because of my medical condition, I’m an early retiree and it’s advised that we relocate to a lower elevation state. Having lived in Colorado at 6,200 ft in elevation for the past 14 years is starting to take toll on my health.

My question is: in order to continue to pay the in-state tuition for my son, do we need to continue to live in-state for as long as he’s in college, or is there a rule that I don’t know about that would allow us to leave Colorado earlier than it takes for my son to finish his undergrad?

[ucbalumnus]

Rules vary from state to state (and sometimes vary from one school to another within the state). Obviously, you are looking for Colorado’s rules.

http://highered.colorado.gov/finance/residency/faq.html
http://www.colorado.edu/registrar/students/state-residency/domicile-exceptions

Looks like the following may be of interest:

@University of Colorado Boulder

If your parents (or court-appointed legal guardians) maintained Colorado domicile for four years and then established domicile elsewhere, you will remain eligible for in-state tuition if either:

Your parents left Colorado after your junior year of high school and you enrolled at a Colorado public college or university within three years and six months after your parents left Colorado

OR

You maintained continuous Colorado domicile
(This provision will generally be met if you continue to reside in Colorado after your parents leave or if you reside outside the state only temporarily [for example, to attend college or for military service] while maintaining Colorado domiciliary connections, such as voter registration and income tax filing.)

Student must:

Qualify for in-state tuition
Eligible for Colorado Opportunity Fund
Eligible for resident financial aid

Student’s child dependent and spouse must:

Not qualify for in-state tuition

[TiggerDad]

Thank you, ucbalumnus, for your quick response and the links! From my quick reading of this, it looks like we can plan on leaving CO pretty much whenever without losing in-state tuition for my son…

[Otterma]

It does look like you’re good to go. What a relief that must be. Still, you might want to be proactive and have your son check in with the school’s admin office to see what kind of documentation they need regarding your four years of recent CO residency.

[TiggerDad]

@Otterma - Yes, that’s a sensible advice and will do. Thanks!